Question of gender and pets

[Irina Shevelenko]

The conversation might go this way:

-- Это твоя собака? Как *ее* зовут?
-- Макс, это кобель (мальчик).
-- Сколько *ему* лет? 
-- Три.

In the household, the dog will go by name and will always be referred to with gender-appropriate personal and possessive pronouns.

Irina

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Emily Saunders
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2013 4:58 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Question of gender and pets

Hello!

I'm about to introduce noun gender and pet vocabulary to my Beginning Russian students and I'm preparing for the inevitable question that will follow -- "If my dog is a boy and собака is feminine, do I say вот она, or её зовут, or..."  

And I've never been able to get an entirely satisfactory answer to the question of what you do when the default vocabulary word for a pet is feminine, but the actual pet is a male.  So hypothetically someone is asking about the name of your boy-собака:  Как её зовут? How do you respond?  Is there any etiquette to correct the gender assumption.  Do you treat your male-собака as grammatically feminine?  

I'd love a smattering of advice in how this is handled?  In English if someone asked about my male cat:  What's her name?  I'd respond simply, "His name is Jack."  Does the same hold true in Russian?  

Thanks in advance!

Emily Saunders
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